Sponsor income – Believe it or not, I had 2 serious inbound leads, which just haven’t paid yet. Hopefully that’ll come through in early August, and I’ll have 1-2 slots left for people at $135 each.

I also pitched 3-5 people during the month, and 2 of them were “on the fence,” though I’m not going to push them 🙂

(side-note: I had 4 paragraphs where this sentence is…but deleted them. David at Zero Day Finance grilled me w/ questions about being a sponsor before saying “no thanks.” Would you like a glimpse at how I pitch sponsorships? I’ve been thinking about writing a post (or recording a 10-min podcast). Let me know in the comments?

The podcast is where I’m seeing extraordinary growth and positive feedback. I could not be happier.

Thank you all so, so much for listening. It melts my heart. <3

Facebook Group Growth – 16 (brand new!)

Here’s a question…

What do you honestly think about blogging Facebook groups?

hey that’s me!

MOST of the groups I’m in are slightly above average. I enjoy groups w/ honest discussions and controlled link spamming…but it feels like everyone is just lurking, ready to post their blog post URLs at the FIRST opportunity they get.

Even after speaking with 3 Pinterest marketing gurus, I still find myself struggling to drive Pinterest traffic.

There’s no shame in admitting that.

Things I’ve done: Overhauled my Pinterest profile and board organization, and took a huge leap with my images. Signed up for a pro Tailwind account as well, so maybe that’ll make things easier.

Things I haven’t done well: Engaging on Pinterest. Before a few weeks ago, I was NOT a user at all. I’m starting from scratch as a complete newbie, so I suspect it will take time to generate solid growth. Also, my pin images still need a LOT of optimization and improvement.

June Monthly Blog Income Report

Money saved through software sponsors: $1,740

Note: I’m back on the ConvertKit bandwagon! Hence the expenses this month.

Next month’s goals and how I’m going to get there:

Revenue: $100

Traffic: 3,000 pageviews

Email subs: 400

How I’m going to get revenue

I will not be focusing on revenue at all in August.

I’ve had a few inbound requests from sponsors, so maybe a few of those will pan out. I’m increasing the price to $135 for a “site of the week” sponsor slot….but revenue is not a goal for me in August.

Content is king.

How I’m going to get traffic

I have 3 guest posts slated for August, and my organic traffic has been increasing steadily. I expect 3k page views to come easily.

Pro Tip: Guest posting takes a long time. There’s a lot of going back-and-forth, pitching, editing, emailing, optimizing, and oh yeah, writing. Don’t be like me and say “oh yeah I’ll just churn out some guest posts this month!” It takes planning.

How I’m going to get email subscribers

It’s a quick and dirty email course designed to provide an easy and inexpensive way to get started podcasting. Like, in a day. There’s never been a better time to start a podcast, and it can be an incredible tool for your own blog.

Pete, I would love to hear about your biggest lessons learned from your first blog. I’m a new blogger (5mos). I’ve accomplished a lot at my age, and share all the details about that on my site. But yeah… marketing.

My biggest page view day was also an RF feature. Otherwise, it’s growing slowly but steadily.

Pete I appreciate your transparency and honesty. Being inches away from my own launch I am glad to see success out of gate is possible if you work at it…I just subscribed to your podcast and am actually hoping for some traffic on my daily commute to have time to listen. -TFF

Great overview, Pete! Awesome story about bartering for products. Makes sense they don’t want you saying who, the whole blogger universe would be knocking at their door!

I published income reports my first 6 months blogging because I wanted to show the early months. Most people don’t seem to start right away. However, I’m now moving them to my email list. My blog isn’t focused on blogging and now that I dropped to two posts a week I didn’t want to take a slot up each month with a report.

Most of the blog Facebook groups I’m in are pretty useless, though I find the EBA and FinCon groups invaluable. EBA is great for advice without having to sift through spam and FinCon is amazing for networking.

I could use some help with monetization! I recently discovered I have 2-3 posts ranking in the top 3 on Google for my target keywords, and while just those posts drive ~1/3 of my traffic, none of them have any monetization on them. Oops!!